What’s in a name? Should we call it a transition? A convergence? A transformation? A revolution? A tipping-point? A paradigm shift? Consider that perhaps the name is largely irrelevant, except to sell conference tickets. There’s a radical shift afoot that affects the business model for global energy delivery and consumption. And with it comes with a wealth of opportunities for energy geoscientists, as well as an obligation for every professional society to help its members prepare for the future.

A few dates and names might be a little slower to come to mind, but at the age of 100, Helen Foster’s love for geology remains clear and strong. “You can learn and enjoy geology by observing the Earth around you … mountains, streams, you learn to enjoy and appreciate them more,” she said. Foster might be AAPG’s longest-tenured member, and one of its oldest, having recently celebrated her 100th birthday on Dec. 15.

With the advent of 3-D seismic technology and its remarkable spatial resolving power, mass transport deposits are better defined in terms of their full areal extent and their morphologic features in areas affected by slope failure. Though mass movements have been extensively studied within the Permian Basin, little work has been published on the nature of these MTDs and their related geomorphological expression on seismic. The goal of this study is to understand sediment flow and delineate the anatomy of the MTD that was deposited 275 million years ago in the Midland Basin. This feature was deposited in the Upper Leonard interval which overlies the Upper Spraberry formation.

In the summer of 1865, Thomas Bard arrived in Ventura County, Calif., to begin exploration drilling on properties owned by his uncle, Thomas Scott, in the area of Sulphur Mountain. Scott had made a fortune investing in Pennsylvania railroads in the 1850s and in Titusville oil fields in the early 1860s. Scott undertook petroleum exploration in California on the basis of sensational reports of the oil potential there published by Yale professor Benjamin Silliman in 1864. Writing to Scott about the Sulphur Mountain area, Silliman said, 'Its great value is in its almost fabulous wealth in the best of oil.'

“As we are in the forefront of the oil boom associated with unconventional reservoirs, we are on a steep learning curve concerning related high-cost drilling and completion operations and we need to be aware of associated risks and do our best to minimize these risks and financial waste.” That’s Mamdouh A. Shebl, who has more than 34 years’ experience in unconventional reservoir development, and he has seen the protocols industry professionals take to assess the risks of such wells, both from an industry perspective as senior petrophysicist at Chevron’s MidContinent Business Unit, and from an academic one as petrophysics research professor at Texas A&M University. And he thinks the industry can do better.

Geopolitical tensions thrust Iran into an international spotlight in January, in a series of events that briefly unnerved oil markets. The aftermath could have serious, longer-term effects on the oil and gas industry, although those repercussions are difficult to predict. There is one certainty, though, according to one analyst: Iran’s situation under continued U.S.-enforced sanctions is untenable.

Evaluation of the Mississippian stratigraphy of the Great Basin region identifies the presence of two mud-rock formations, historically identified as the Chainman Shale. This work improves the understanding of this mud-rock stratigraphy, its tectonic significance, and its hydrocarbon potential.

Whole core from both the Delaware and Midland Basins will be examined to understand the changes in slope deposits from both confined and unconfined settings. The goal of this course will be to understand how these deposits impact reservoir quality in the basins.

This virtual short course focuses on methods and workflows for identifying, characterizing, and developing tight-shale reservoirs. Participants will learn how to apply mudrock depositional, sedimentological, sequence stratigraphic, and geochemical principles to exploration areas and production assets in shale basins.

This online short course is designed to provide a geologic perspective of the climate debate to both geoscientists and non-geoscientists. By completing the course participants will have a better understanding of how the earth’s climate/sea levels/plates have changed/moved over geologic time, the earth’s evolving climate/plate positions/sea-level variations affected life on earth, and the environment has impacted man & man has impacted the earth’s environment.

Any complete core analysis program should include companion thin sections for all core plugs on which measurements have been made. This course will describe the use of multimodal thin section imaging and image analysis to make quantitative estimates of rock properties that are important in hydrocarbon exploration and production.

This course will allow beginner or intermediate professionals to provide with daily geochemical solutions to executional E&P projects from exploration to WIM/production and environmental footprints issues.

During this course, participants will gain the foundations for understanding and predicting the geometry, connectivity, and permeability trends of fluvial reservoir systems at the scale of boreholes, fields, and basins. A full range of topics needed to identify, correlate, and interpret fluvial reservoirs and encasing non-reservoir units will be covered.

This course will discuss the Huff-n-Puff gas EOR process specifically, but will also address relevant fundamentals of displacement-based gas EOR methods (miscibility, vaporization, and displacement) in tight unconventionals.

Data driven modeling is becoming a key differentiation to unlock higher recoveries from existing fields as well as identify new opportunities. In this course, we will be introducing advanced analytical tools and techniques - machine learning and data mining algorithms used to identify of trends and patterns in any given dataset and predict future trends.

This course provides a comprehensive methodology for the diagnosis, analysis, and forecasting of well production data in unconventional resources. An extensive evaluation of the diagnostic tools for assessing data viability, checking data correlation along with flow regime identification is presented.

The course is designed for both graduate students majoring in applied geophysics and more experienced geophysicists working in research, technical service, or exploration. Attendees are expected to be familiar with the basics of seismic wave propagation and data processing.

Geomechanics – in both completions and drilling operations – has become a critical technology in the development of Unconventional Plays. This course presents the basics of oil field geomechanics and its application to unconventional developments, specifically, the role of stress, pore pressure, mechanical properties, and natural fractures on hydraulic fracturing operations.

This one-day session will include a view of best practices for Carbon Management with a focus on fugitive methane reduction. It will include global and local examples of Carbon Regulations, give tools for de-risking regulatory compliances and field-proven methane reduction technology cases.

Deltas are extremely important depositional systems and often source and contain prolific hydrocarbon accumulations. This workshop includes topical lectures, key cores, and a suite of exercises that integrate core, well logs, experimental flume data, and seismic sections to develop identification and subsurface mapping skills of hydrocarbon accumulations within deltaic settings.

This two-day workshop provides a review of the application of carbonate facies, diagenesis, and seismic sequence stratigraphy to exploration and production. The workshop combines seismic, well log and rock data, to develop interpretations that help predict carbonate hydrocarbon systems, and characterize conventional and unconventional carbonate reservoirs and seals.

Hydraulic fracturing has been around for decades. This talk describes some of the first applications of the technology, how it developed over time, and our current understanding of its impacts with some discussion of both water and earthquake hazards.

This lecture will discuss the differences between carbonates and siliciclastics from their chemical composition through their distributions in time and space. Building on these fundamental differences, we will explore the challenges carbonates pose to petroleum geologists in terms of seismic interpretation, reservoir quality prediction, field development, etc. Peppered with humorous personal stories, still raging academic debates, and the heartfelt frustrations of real industry professionals, the aim is to inspire students and young professionals to rise to the occasion and embrace the reservoir rocks that petroleum geologists love to hate.

In 1991, Gulf Indonesia and its partners discovered South Sumatra Basin’s first major gas field at Dayung in the Corridor PSC. A key feature of this field is that most of the reserves are held within fractured basement rocks of pre-Tertiary age.

Analysis of microseismicity induced by hydraulic fracture stimulation in the Marcellus Shale shows changes in stress state for different zones of failure. During the treatment, shear failure occurs on both the J1 and J2 fracture orientations in response to different maximum stress orientations, indicating localized changes in the orientation during the treatment. Reactivation of a fault near the wellbore is associated with failure mechanisms with a higher volumetric component, indicating possible inflation of faults and fractures by the introduction of the slurry. Quantification of the stress conditions that are associated with inflation could potentially be used to optimize the stimulation by identifying which fractures will preferentially take on slurry volume.

Microseismicity induced by hydraulic fracture stimulation of a horizontal well was mapped with a near-surface buried array. Distinct linear trends of events were not parallel to the direction of fast shear wave polarization measured in the reservoir with a crossed-dipole anisotropy tool. Analysis of core from a nearby well revealed numerous calcite-filled fractures that did not induce shear wave polarization, but did significantly impact the failure behavior of the reservoir rock during the stimulation treatment. Hydraulic fracture simulation with DFN modeling and source mechanism analysis supports the interpretation of reactivated existing fractures rather than the formation of hydraulically-induced tensile fractures.

The following short course option was developed for geology and geophysics students that have not had much exposure to how geoscience is applied in industry. It can be tailored for undergraduate juniors and seniors or graduate students. The agenda can be modified to meet specific needs and time constraints. Contact the presenter to discuss options.

The following short course option was developed for geology and geophysics students that have not had much exposure to how geoscience is applied in industry. It can be tailored for undergraduate juniors and seniors or graduate students. The agenda can be modified to meet specific needs and time constraints. Contact the presenter to discuss options.

The following short course option was developed for geology and geophysics students that have not had much exposure to how geoscience is applied in industry. It can be tailored for undergraduate juniors and seniors or graduate students. The agenda can be modified to meet specific needs and time constraints.

The following short course option was developed for geology and geophysics students that have not had much exposure to how geoscience is applied in industry. It can be tailored for undergraduate juniors and seniors or graduate students. The agenda can be modified to meet specific needs and time constraints. Contact the presenter to discuss options.

This is a less-technical education topic. It can be condensed to an hour or given as 2 two-hour sessions. It stresses selected controversial aspects of fracking that touch some combination of environment and economics and includes a short video of how fracking is done.